Police officers who were newly recruited in 2022 & 2021

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.23.029495

I note you seek access to the following information:

1. Pertaining to the number of police officers who were newly recruited in 2022.
(a) How many of these were recruited with a face to face interview?
(b) How many of these were recruited without a face to face interview?

2. Pertaining to the number of police officers recruited in 2021
(a) How many of these were recruited with a face to face interview ?
(b) How many of these were recruited without a face to face interview?

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

All candidates who were recruited in 2021 and 2022 were interviewed in person.

All candidates are subject to a rigorous recruitment process, which is detailed below.

Candidates start their recruitment journey by completing an application form, which covers our minimum academic and personal eligibility criteria for the role. Ahead of their first assessment a basic security check is conducted.

Candidates then complete a short assessment online. This is an Apollo Behavioural Skills Questionnaire to check that candidates have the key behavioural skills required to be a police officer.

Following on from this all candidates must sit and pass the national recruitment assessment process, which is governed by the College of Policing. This consists of a number of assessments which include a Competency-based interview, a written assessment and briefing exercise.

Once candidates have been successful through these stages they then progress to an in-force assessment, including role-play exercises to test behaviours and standards.

They also complete a health and medical assessment, fitness test and have their biometrics taken.

The next stage of the recruitment process is for pre-employment checks where all candidates undergo rigorous vetting and reference checks.

Once a candidate has successfully completed all parts of the recruitment testing their journey is complete and are given an intake date to start as a SPO, either at a Higher Education institute (HEI) or Hendon. This is dependent upon which entry route they have chosen.

Please find a link which may be of interest to you, in terms of published Workforce Data reporting.